Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Centers In West Virginia

West Virginia is an Appalachian state, covered in forestland, with the Potomac River flowing through it. Bordered by Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, West Virginia is a landlocked state with a long US history dating before the Civil War. West Virginia is home to 1.8 million people, and its capital city of Charleston sits near its border with Ohio. Considered one of the more scenic states in the country because of its expansive and mountainous landscape, West Virginia draws tourists to towns that still look much as they did in the nineteenth century and features buildings preserved as living historical monuments.

Substance Abuse in West Virginia

Topping all other states in the country, West Virginia has the highest opioid overdose death rate at 43.4 deaths per 100,000 people. Compared to the national average of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people, West Virginia is experiencing a ravaging epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives over the past five years.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the number of overdose deaths in West Virginia peaked in 2016 at 733, most of which were attributable to heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil. In 2013, West Virginia medical providers wrote opioid prescriptions at a rate of 110 per 100 persons, well above the national average of 70.0 per 100 persons.

According to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), West Virginia addiction treatment admissions for the year 2017 were primarily for opioids other than heroin as the primary drug of abuse. Opioids other than heroin accounted for 22.1 percent of treatment admissions, and that same year heroin was the primary drug of abuse in an additional 16.5 percent of admissions.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has identified much of the current opioid and heroin supplied by dealers coming to the state from Detroit and from neighboring states such as Pennsylvania.